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Tamar

by Mal Peet

3.91 · Rating Details · 4,592 Ratings · 627 Reviews

Now available - the Carnegie Medal winner comes to the U.S.

When her grandfather dies, Tamar inherits a box containing a series of clues and coded messages. Out of the past, another Tamar emerges, a man involved in the terrifying world of resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied Holland half a century before. His story is one of passionate love, jealousy, and tragedy set again ...more

Hardcover, 432 pages

Published January 23rd 2007 by Candlewick Press (first published October 3rd 2005)

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Community Reviews

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Mar 13, 2014 Aly's Bookish Wonderland rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, mystery-and-thriller, war

Today, I found out that Mal Peet passed away.
I am absolutely gutted that such a kind, generous soul was taken away far too soon. I think a reread of Tamar is due.

May you rest in peace. You will be greatly missed.

I read this book back in '07/08, because I (luckily) lived next door to Mal Peet and he gave me a copy a couple of days after publishing and I absolutely loved it.

It is a beautiful story of love, betrayal and life of two soldiers during WWII.

I'd give it a shot if I were you.

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Aug 01, 2007 Jenny rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Older teens and adults

I took me a while to get into this book. It is not my usual choice of genre, but I am glad I stuck with it. This story takes place in 2 time periods and centers around 2 characters who share a name. World War II Tamar is a British soldier stationed in The Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Present day Tamar, named for her grandfather, is facing several family crises. The story is well crafted and has a twist at the end (which you may or may not see coming). The wartime section of the story really hit me ...more

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Dec 17, 2008 Heather rated it did not like it

I was quite disappointed in this novel. It is advertised as the story of a young girl (Tamar) discovering secrets in her family having to do with espionage and WWII. The story isn't from the girl's point of view until page 99. Before that and comprising most of the book is a third person narrative concerning two men in the Dutch resistance during 1944. The intrigue involving the resistance is not a new story or handled in unique way. It's a basic love triangle with WWII as the backdrop and quite ...more

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Jan 04, 2013 jo rated it liked it

Shelves: great-britain

this is a good book. it's good in the way good books are good. a good, solid goodbook. a readable book. a book you want to go back to night after night. a book that makes you anxious to see how it ends. a book with good sentences good words a good story. a book where people love each other. a book where people hate each other. a book where there is danger and there is respite. a suspenseful book. a book that makes you hungry. a books that makes you happy you are not cold (and you are not, becaus this is a good book. it's good in the way good books are good. a good, solid goodbook. a readable book. a book you want to go back to night after night. a book that makes you anxious to see how it ends. a book with good sentences good words a good story. a book where people love each other. a book where people hate each other. a book where there is danger and there is respite. a suspenseful book. a book that makes you hungry. a books that makes you happy you are not cold (and you are not, because you live in miami and this is like the warmest winter since south florida was shaped by the planet earth). a book you like to hold. a book with a good cover, good typeface and good, substantial pages. this is a good book like good books are good. like good cups of tea are good. like good clean toilets are good. like good walks are good. like a good warm blanket would be good if you weren't in miami in the warmest winter since the beginning of the planet. like a good bath is good, and a good shower. like a good breakfast is good.

not, though, like a good soft dog is good. or a good fresh glass of clean water out of the tap. or a good hike in pristine mountains. or a really good pair of shoes -- shoes you want to walk in a long time because when you wear them you don't feel your feet so it feels like you can go on forever. or like a good healthy body is good, and a good healthy mind. or a good, good friend, a friend you can spend hours with, a friend who makes you laugh, a friend who gets it, a friend who when you see them you break into this big great grin and the day is suddenly so good, so full of sun. or like a good song, a song that sinks into your mind and alters the workings of your synapses, and suddenly you feel pretty fucking happy, or satisfied, but not just satisfied like at the end of a decent day, more satisfied like at the end of lovely tender sex with someone you like a lot, whose hands you like a lot, whose skin you like a lot, whose breath you like like like.

so this is a good book, but good only in the sense in which all the things in the first paragraph are good, not in the sense in which the things in the second paragraph are good. and i realize that good, the way i use it here, is subjective, and that people might find a good warm blanket closer to a good soft dog than to a good walk, but this is how i see things, and to me the things in the first paragraph are good in a different, lesser way than the things in the second paragraph, at the time of my writing of this review, which is january 13, 2013, in the hottest winter in the history of the known world. ...more

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Apr 29, 2007 Jan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: teenbooks

I could not put this one down. It is a book that could easily be enjoyed by adults as well as teens. The writing is superior and this is a tale well told. Completely engrossing and thrilling.

Here's a brief summary from the Fantastic Fiction website:

"A thrilling and moving story about love, betrayal and belonging. When Tamar's grandfather, an intensely private man, falls from a balcony to his death, he leaves behind a box with Tamar's name on it. For a long time Tamar refuses even to think about ...more

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Apr 04, 2016 Erica rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, historical-fiction, real-life-fiction, ww2, survival, famous-figures, war-stories, dead-friends-and-family, men-and-boys, terribly_tiny_towns, cataloged_it

I read this at home while I also listened to The Goddess of Small Victories at work. How do I so often manage to do this, overlap my current stories? It's not intentional, not usually. It must be one of my secret superpowers.
At any rate, both books are WWII stories set against contemporary stories. In this case, Tamar is both the code name for a Danish spy-for-England in Denmark during WWII and the granddaughter who was named after him.

This one was fairly different from most of the WWII stories ...more

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Aug 03, 2007 Trevor rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Certain teen readers looking for "war" books, adults who enjoy historical fiction

Shelves: teen-lit-read

In such a short amount of space it’s difficult to touch on all the things that make Tamar a WWII historical novel unlike ones many teens (and adults) have ever encountered before. It’s a human drama set into motion by events taking place during the great war, which are often overlooked for bigger, Hollywood-depicted, epic war films. The hunger winter was real, and the Nazis did attempt to starve the Dutch into submission…or trick Dutch men into signing up to work for the Nazis only to become tod ...more

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May 14, 2013 Rhea rated it it was ok

Recommends it for: No one. Not even WWII lit fans.

Shelves: young-adult, 2-stars-meh, genre-historical, dnf, carnegie

TAMAR is a fanfic.

Honestly, it feels as if Mal Peet read Postcards from No Man's Land and liked it so much, he decided to write a fanfic. But then he decided to tweak the storyline a bit to make it a bestseller, and to make the content more politically correct.

Let's observe the similarities:

- The narrative has two alternating stories, one from WWII and one from the 1990's

- The WWII story takes place in Nazi-occupied Holland, where a soldier and a young woman fall in love. Meanwhile, there is an ...more

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Apr 06, 2016 Yasmin Halliwell Fraser Bower rated it it was ok

It took me forever to finish this book for one simple reason: I suspected the big betrayal since the prologue, and I was right. So it was kind of predictable for me. I liked how the betrayal developped because it was well thought and the obsessive passion was believable, BUT the whole time I was reading I was like “Yep, I think I know what this is all about,” so it was a little boring for me. My second critique is that the first half of the book was utterly BORING because the activities of the r ...more

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Jun 13, 2014 Sarah Cosey rated it it was ok

This book started much stronger than it finished. It had great promise of mystery and intriguing to come. However, if you are at all an astute reader, you catch the plot twist rather early on. The mystery box of items that Tamar's grandfather leaves her with led me to believe that there would be a great unfolding of clues or truths throughout the story. In the end, all you get is a lengthy explanation from Tamar's estranged father which is a wordy and unfulfilling rehash of the story the reader ...more

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Jun 15, 2009 Darla rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. (Genre:fiction/historical fiction-WWII) This is a sad book. I was about a third of the way thru it when I realized who Tamar's (the girl) grandfather really was and I almost stopped reading it. I knew where it was going and it wasn't where I wanted to go. The writing is solid, though, and even though I could see what was coming I felt compelled to finish it. The story is told in two different times, 1944-45 and 1995/2005. Most of the 1944-1945 story takes place in German-occupied Holland. It tel ...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Alex Baugh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: world-war-2

Tamar is one of those stories that is difficult to talk about without giving too much away and spoiling the twist that comes at the end of the novel. And Tamar is well worth the read just to get to that. It begins in 1979, when William Hyde asks his son Jan if he and his wife would consider using the name Tamar for their expected baby, to which they happily respond in the affirmative. It is this daughter, Tamar, who narratives the story that follows.

The story then switches to 1945, introducing D Tamar is one of those stories that is difficult to talk about without giving too much away and spoiling the twist that comes at the end of the novel. And Tamar is well worth the read just to get to that. It begins in 1979, when William Hyde asks his son Jan if he and his wife would consider using the name Tamar for their expected baby, to which they happily respond in the affirmative. It is this daughter, Tamar, who narratives the story that follows.

The story then switches to 1945, introducing Dart and Tamar, undercover names (based on English rivers) for two Dutch born, British trained agents for the SOE (Special Operations Executive) just as they are about to parachute into the Nazi-occupied Netherlands to work with the Dutch Resistance in an attempt to reorganize it during that terrible Hunger Winter when so many people died of starvation. Once inside Holland, Dart, who is the team's radio operator, operates under the name Dr. Ernest Lubbers, living and setting up his radio at the local mental asylum. Tamar, under the name of Christiaan Boogart, is fortunate enough to be placed in the home of Marijke Maatens. Tamar/Christiaan and Marijke have been lovers for a while, but when Dart/Lubbers realizes what is going on between them, he becomes very angry and jealous. He has also fallen in love with Marjike.

The narrative moves to the spring of 1995. Jan Hyde's daughter Tamar Hyde is now 15. Her father has be missing for a few years and her beloved grandmother, Marijke, has recently passed away, after being placed in a nursing home because she was seemingly suffering from dementia. Now, her grandfather has just committed suicide. As a result of that, Tamar finds herself in possession of a box full of his World War II memorabilia. Tamar knew that her Grandad "was fascinated by riddles and codes and conundrums of labyrinths, by the origin of place names, by grammar, by slang, by jokes...by anything that might mean something else. He lived in a world that was slippery, changeable, fluid." (pg 111) And so Tamar begins a journey to figure out that codes messages her Grandad has left regarding his life and suicide.

From here on the story alternates between 1945 and 1995 as events unfold and characters are explained. I don't want to say too much more at this point and risk an unintended spoiler, which can so easily happen with suspense novels you feel enthusiastic about.

Tamar is an exciting, suspenseful, very sophisticated and often gritty YA novel, but it is definitely not going to be everyones cup of tea. A lot of readers said they had a hard time getting into the story, while others complained that it was big (379 pages) and too slow moving, while other readers thought it was a 5 star story. I tend to be on the side of the 5 star folks.

Peet's teenage narrator proves to be quite formidable. One would almost think beyond her 15 years, but given Tamar's life experiences so far, maybe her formidability is completely understandable. Through her voice, Peet details her discoveries in a very straightforward style, clean and clear, yet it is all done in such lyrical prose that sometimes it often made me almost forget the subtext of the title. Without my realizing that he had done it, Peet has taken that subtext espionage, passion and betrayal, wound and woven them together in a story that left me unsuspecting until the very end and then totally surprised. In fact, after I finished it, I thought the whole novel is really a reflection of of William Hyde's love of all things enigma and that, I think, that is what makes Tamar such an unusual story. And yet, all along the way, Tamar gives us innocent (?) hints about where things are going.

The book is recommended for readers age 14+
This book was bought for my personal library ...more

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Nov 14, 2009 Jill rated it really liked it

This book begins with the naming of a child. A fairly simple event, yet this particular name carries a tremendous amount of meaning. The name is Tamar, it is the name of a river in Holland, it was the code name of a member of the Dutch Resistance during WWII, and it is now the name of a newly born girl. As the book progresses we learn more and more about the name, the person,and the story of Tamar.
Written in alternating sections (not chapters), young Tamar narrates the modern, set in 1995, secti This book begins with the naming of a child. A fairly simple event, yet this particular name carries a tremendous amount of meaning. The name is Tamar, it is the name of a river in Holland, it was the code name of a member of the Dutch Resistance during WWII, and it is now the name of a newly born girl. As the book progresses we learn more and more about the name, the person,and the story of Tamar.
Written in alternating sections (not chapters), young Tamar narrates the modern, set in 1995, sections, while the 1945 WWII sections are written in third person. There is no obvious overlap, just the knowledge that young Tamar's name carries a mystery. When her Grandad chose the name Tamar, her Grandmother, Marijke nearly fainted with shock.
The book is laden with suspense and action. We learn right away that Tamar's Grandad, William Hyde, committed suicide. He left her a box of of items including a map, a crossword puzzle, 1,945 pounds and a German passport. None of these items help Tamar, her Grandad never talked about his time in the war, so why has he left her these things? She calls her cousin Yoyo (Johannes) and they plan a road trip for the summer time to follow the marks on the maps.
While Tamar's journey does not follow her Grandad's wartime footsteps, she does get to experience the Tamar River, and her destination is not what one would expect. Alternately, the chapters set in 1945, are intense and deliberately clear. Two men, with the code names Dart and Tamar are stationed in Holland as Dutch Resistors trying to form an alliance of scattered geurilla groups. Dart, a wireless operator, travels via bicycle to send encoded messages to Britain, while Tamar organizes the resistance and tries to convince them all to work together against the German SS. Underlying this dramatic storyline is a love story. Tamar, living in a rural farmhouse, has a loving relationship with Marijke, the woman whose family owns the farm. He keeps this love a secret, and this becomes his fatal flaw. Dart, it turns out, is also in love with Marijke. Dart sees Tamar in an evil light, thinking that he has taken advantage of his situation at the farm, and he repulsed by this belief. When the opportunity arises to alter this situation, he jumps on it, and it is the dramatic climax after much build-up of suspense
While the wartime sections are a picture of the dreadfulness of Nazi ruled Europe, young Tamar's sections are a more peaceful ride through the life of a young girl left with so many unanswered questions and so much life ahead of her. What will her trip teach her about her Grandad? Why did he kill himself?
Although a happily-ever-after ending puts a glow to the finality of this book, the reader is ultimately left with a feeling of shock.
This is a book about a brutal war, a broken family, and a young girl struggling with her lack of family background. A real page turner, I highly recommend this book. ...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Cheryl rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical, literary

I wanted to give TAMAR five stars, it was that good a read. I thought about it off and on for days after finishing. (And normally I forget a book once it's read, except when I buy it again and realize after a couple of chapters I've read it before!)

TAMAR grabbed me right away, when an old man asks his son to name his coming baby Tamar. The son conmplies and the stage is set for the story to unfold. When Tamar is fifteen, she sets out on a journey up the Tamar River in England, going to places he ...more

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Jun 20, 2007 Jenn rated it it was amazing

Sign of an outstanding book? Tears at the end--good tears. Tragic, historically interesting, emotionally gripping, beautifully written. As usual, I read the end early on; when I found out what happened I had to stop for a few days. But I couldn't just walk away. One nugget of doubt: Stepping away from the book, I had a little difficulty convincing myself that Dart would really have "done it," despite all Peet's carefully built clues. But I bought it wholesale while "in the dream" of the novel, s ...more

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Jun 04, 2015 Sally906 rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, historical

A story about the Dutch Underground in WWII - I was attracted to it because my late Brother-in-Law was in it as a child. He was shipped to Australia at the end of the war aged 12 as he was an orphan by then. He could speak no English, said English was the hardest language to learn as the rules made no sense. To his dying day he couldn't understand why you had one foot but didn't have two foots!

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Jul 23, 2017 BellaGBear added it

Shelves: to-re-read, bookworms-united

This is the book for you if you are looking for an unheroic war story. For all their bravery, men and women living through or fighting in a war are seldom the Hollywood-kind of heroes, and many people on the ‘right side of history’ might be frightful assholes. The Second World War is no different.

Peet’s writing is very detailed and precise, which makes for stressful and sometimes shocking scenes but also very happy, beautiful ones. In the midst of the turmoil Tamar and Dart spend languid hours i ...more

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May 27, 2011 Thea rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Those who love to read. Seriously.

Shelves: page-turners, absolute-favorites, enjoyable, with-love-interests, library-finds, historical-fiction, realistic-fiction, read-in-2011

This book. Where to start.

I'd like to say that this book deserves every single one of those stars. This is a 5 star books. It's told in two perspectives: One perspective is from the main character during World War Two, while the other perspective is about the girl who is discovering how she's connected to the main character during World War Two. Both view points complement each other very well.

I first came across this book when I was finding another book. I was hesitant on picking it up because This book. Where to start.

I'd like to say that this book deserves every single one of those stars. This is a 5 star books. It's told in two perspectives: One perspective is from the main character during World War Two, while the other perspective is about the girl who is discovering how she's connected to the main character during World War Two. Both view points complement each other very well.

I first came across this book when I was finding another book. I was hesitant on picking it up because I have never heard of it before and I wasn't much of a historical fiction reader. I had two other books with me, but I decided to give Tamar a go. I'm so glad I did. This book drew me in right away, mainly because of how you could instantly dive right into the plot. It starts out with the grandfather choosing a child's name, which of course if the name of the novel. Then it shifts gears and transports the reader to the late stages of WWII, which caught my attention even more. The plot itself was not hard to follow; It's simplistic, but I think that's the beauty of it.

I didn't drop the book all day yesterday (unless I had to, for daily activities). I basically neglected everything else to get as far as I could with this book. It was a little slow to begin with, but once it starts, it starts. There are so many things that happen all at once, and with the changing perspectives, it's the type of book that makes you say, "Oh, I'll just finish this chapter." And when the new chapter starts, as soon as you read the first sentence, your head does a follow up and says, "I suppose another chapter wouldn't hurt!" And that's how it was with me. I read well into the night, until sleep threatened to make me forget everything I read. That, and the words began to float around the page.

I probably say this with every single book I read, but the plot really thickens the closer you get to the end. The title of "Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal" perfectly describes this book in three short, sweet, but powerful words. It came to the point where I had to go back to third grade, and cover the line that was after the current one I was reading with my bookmark because I didn't want to spoil it for myself. I'd kick myself over and over if I had ruined it. As soon as I finished the last page, I flipped back to the first page and read the prologue again. Then it all really hit me.

The very first sentence, if read very carefully, lays out the conflict for the rest of the novel. And that's what I really loved about this book. In the end, you really saw it coming, but you didn't, because most if not all of us reads the first sentence of a novel wishy-washily because we're too impatient and we want to start diving straight into the book. It's beautiful.

Even though this book gets 5 stars, it's not a book I would reread, personally. So many things happen in the book, and it has to be read carefully to fully grasp the idea behind every detail. I said the plot was simple - and it still is - but make sure you read with care. If you have to reread the book, it takes away from the novel altogether because you already know what's going to happen. It's best to keep this book fresh in your mind, and with the details that you pay so close to (right?), you shouldn't have to reread.

This was a fabulous book. I will shove this book on you, because everyone should read this book at least once. This is the type of book that's not well known, but once people have gotten a hold of it, they're in for a ride. Then they'll tell their friends, who'd tell their friends, who'd tell their friends, who'd tell their friends, who'd tell their friends... ...more

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Mar 26, 2008 Angie rated it liked it

Shelves: ya

This one's been sitting on my TBR shelf for awhile now, waiting for me to work my way around to the right mood. When I finally did, I was sucked in by the first line.

"In the end, it was her grandfather, William Hyde, who gave the unborn child her name. He was serious about names; he'd had several himself."

One day, out of the blue, William Hyde asks his son to name his daughter Tamar. He explains that when he was a Dutch resistance fighter working for the British during WWII, their code names we This one's been sitting on my TBR shelf for awhile now, waiting for me to work my way around to the right mood. When I finally did, I was sucked in by the first line.

"In the end, it was her grandfather, William Hyde, who gave the unborn child her name. He was serious about names; he'd had several himself."

One day, out of the blue, William Hyde asks his son to name his daughter Tamar. He explains that when he was a Dutch resistance fighter working for the British during WWII, their code names were taken from rivers in England. His son assumes it was his father's code name and agrees to name her Tamar.

After this brief introduction, the story jumps back in time to follow two young Dutch secret agents, code names Dart and Tamar. The two friends parachute into the occupied Netherlands in the dead of night. Tamar is charged with organizing the fragmented resistance efforts. Dart is his wireless operator. When they arrive, Tamar finds he is based out of the farm where a young woman named Marijke lives. It turns out the two met and fell in love a year ago but never thought they'd see each other again after Tamar was sent back to England. As they rekindle their romance amid the terror and starvation gripping the country, Dart is not so lucky. Based out of an insane asylum, he poses as a doctor, making trip after treacherous trip into town to relay encrypted messages and receive directions from headquarters in England. The events that overtake these two friends combine to create a web of deception and anger that reaches out to cover three generations.

This story is bleak. The focus is on the horrors of war and what they do to the men and women involved, the indelible mark left on their lives long after the guns are silenced and the violence is over. In the WWII chapters, the writing is coolly objective. It is impossible not to sympathize with Dart and Tamar and Marijke, though it is difficult to really feel like you know them. The war obscures everything. However, their story is broken up periodically by excerpts from the future. A future in which William Hyde dies suddenly, leaving a box of strange items to his granddaughter Tamar. Tamar's father disappeared years ago, her grandmother is in a home for the elderly, and her mother knows next to nothing about the family history. With the help of her quirky "cousin" (but not really) Yoyo, Tamar sets out on a journey to the river that shares her name to discover why and what her grandfather left her. These chapters are told in first person and come across a bit warmer than the rest of the tale. They show up more frequently as the novel comes closer to its conclusion and, I admit, I would have liked a few more of these present-day chapters throughout the book. Nevertheless, it is a harrowing and fascinating read. I wanted to understand the characters and their motives. I wanted Tamar to understand. In the end, Mal Peet leaves it up to the reader to determine which of them deserves forgiveness and which of them achieve peace. ...more

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Feb 10, 2011 Jen rated it it was ok

Shelves: young-adult, 5201, ya-and-not-a-series

Lit. class review:

Winner of the Carnegie Medal and one of YALSA’s top ten books for teens in 2008. On the cover, two parachuters are landing in a field next to a windmill; there are letters printed across the bottom like code. The subtitle promises “a novel of espionage, passion, and betrayal.” Sounds like the tagline for a Matt Damon movie.

Tamar is a 15-year-old girl uncovering secrets about her namesake (a spy) through a box of coded messages. In the box, she discovers a story of two spies se Lit. class review:

Winner of the Carnegie Medal and one of YALSA’s top ten books for teens in 2008. On the cover, two parachuters are landing in a field next to a windmill; there are letters printed across the bottom like code. The subtitle promises “a novel of espionage, passion, and betrayal.” Sounds like the tagline for a Matt Damon movie.

Tamar is a 15-year-old girl uncovering secrets about her namesake (a spy) through a box of coded messages. In the box, she discovers a story of two spies sent by the Allies to aid the Dutch resistance.

p. 136 — I’m almost a third of the way through and I’m pretty sure I know what the twist of the story is, which is disappointing. I like being surprised. The bulk of the book so far has taken place in the Netherlands in 1944. Peet has created some good characters, but the bulk of the story centers around Marijke, a dark-eyed and perceptive member of the Dutch resistance movement, and Tamar (Christiaan) and Dart (Ernst), two Dutch operatives trained in England to help unify the movement.

p. 286 — The novel alternates between the events in the Netherlands in 1945 and in England in 1995 as Tamar and her (distant) cousin begin to unpack the mysterious box left by her grandfather. Though Peet sometimes wanders off in descriptions of things that don’t seem to matter, I want to know when the big secret will be revealed, and how.

I could have done without the 1995 bits for most of the book, but in the last 50 pages or so, they were the only potential source of hope; in contrast, the 1945 storyline was interesting and well-written, until the last 50 pages or so, when I wished I could just put the book down and pretend the ending I suspected wasn’t actually written.

I don’t think I’d recommend this to teenagers. Not sure I’d even recommend it to adults. But if you’re looking solely at content and readability, I’d say it’s a good fit for 11th and 12th graders. And if a kid is interested in reading a book about WWII that doesn’t focus on Germany or the holocaust, this could be a good choice. ...more

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Nov 11, 2013 Maggie Boyd rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2013

I've been working my way through my YA book shelf and have to admit this book was a complete surprise to me, probably because of the subject matter and just how dark the entire book is.

It is 1944 and while the war is winding to a close the Germans are fighting for every inch of occupied Europe they have to give up. To aid the resistance in the Netherlands two operatives - code names Dart and Tamar - are dropped behind enemy lines to set up communication relays and prepare the various resistance ...more

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Jun 15, 2010 Clare Cannon rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Young Adults & Adults

Shelves: young-adult, adults

Even though this book is marketed as a young adult book, I’d recommend it for an 17+ readership. There is little graphic detail, but the themes themselves are serious: jealousy and betrayal leading to murder, a physical relationship before marriage justified by their love for one another, despair and suicide when everything becomes too much. But there is also a message of hope, and forgiveness, which subtly reforms a tragic situation.

The story is well-told through two interwoven narratives, the ...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Allison Wonderland rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, period, war, historical-fiction, romance

One of those books that just sucks you in. I was absorbed from the word "go," and ran through Tamar at a quick pace. Everything seemed to slot together perfectly until the end. I can see why Peet wrote Tamar's reaction to the solution of the mystery the way he did, but I wish the ending hadn't been so... rushed, at least on the 1945 side of things. We get this excellently-written scene, and then... nothing. The information we receive on William Hyde's life after that scene is given secondhand an ...more

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Jan 13, 2011 Anne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

There were times while I was reading this one that I had to remind myself I was reading a Young Adult book - the writing is accessible enough, but the story pretty adult and hard-hitting. The wartime story centres on two British agents dropped into Nazi occupied Holland in 1944 - one, codename Dart, is a radio operator and the other, Tamar, a co-ordinator for the resistance movement. Their story twists and turns very satisfyingly, evading Nazi interest, trying to control the various resistance f ...more

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Jan 20, 2011 Jessica rated it really liked it

Shelves: children-young-adult

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 12, 2008 Greta rated it it was ok

Shelves: adult-fiction

Okay, another hard one for me to rate. The story itself was interesting, although I figured out the puzzle--the "ending" well before the end. But I honestly do not understand why authors feel they need to fill a book with obscenities and horrible language. In the context of war, that might be very "real" language, but still, I am offended by it usage. To be frank, I skipped a lot when it came to the war chapters (and I still figured out the ending). The chapters written in the 1995 setting had s ...more

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Jan 06, 2009 Stephanie rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult

I really enjoyed this book about a side of WWII I haven't often read about - the Dutch involved in the resistance efforts before the United States became involved. This story revolves around two close friends who are code-breakers, and a young woman named Marijke. While this book is classified as a YA read, I found it to be very thoughtful, interesting, and adult. I would recommend this book to high school English teachers who incorporate Night into the curriculum - it would be a good side-read ...more

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Sep 24, 2009 Kathleen rated it it was amazing

A tale told in two timelines, one during the Netherlands resistance in World War II, and the other about fifty years later, when the granddaughter of resistance fighters inherits a mystery from her grandfather.

Both stories are compelling and well-written, and I didn't mind stopping one timeline to read about what was happening in the other.

I was impressed at how the structure of the novel brought me to the answer to the mystery on both timelines. I began to suspect that answer only as it got clo ...more

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Apr 18, 2016 Yvette Adams rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is yet another book I bought second-hand purely because I liked the cover - the hand lettering and heavily textured card. I'd never heard of the book or the author and I ended up loving the book. It kept me guessing, was hard to put down and is absolutely recommended. Apparently this is a Young Adult novel, which surprises me. It's definitely OK for young adults to read but it feels to me more like a novel for adults.

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Nov 29, 2014 Grace rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I don't even know where to begin describing this book. The only thing that I can really say is that it was amazing. It really was. But there is so much more to describing how truly amazing I think it was. It was full of action, plot twists, tragedy, and much more. it is one of those books that I am still screaming at as I write this review. The ending left me shocked, along with wishing the book never ended. Tamar is definitely a book I would recommend to everyone.

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About Mal Peet

Mal Peet grew up in North Norfolk, and studied English and American Studies at the University of Warwick. Later he moved to southwest England and worked at a variety of jobs before turning full-time to writing and illustrating in the early 1990s. With his wife, Elspeth Graham, he had written and illustrated many educational picture books for young children, and his cartoons have appeared in a numb ...more

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